N/central govs neglect agriculture – Senator Adamu
The chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said there is no sincere commitment by some north central governors to boost food sufficiency in their states and other parts of the country.
Adamu, who stated this yesterday at Daily Trust North Central and FCT Farmers Forum and Exhibition held in Lafia, expressed displeasure with state governments from the zone for not showing enough interest and commitment to the development of agriculture, which had deprived farmers in the zone of the benefits from agricultural grants and loans.
He was particularly irked by the response of some of the governors to the forum.
“I am saddened to say that apart from the host governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura who has encouraged the Daily Trust, a private organisation that targets to get the peasant farmers improved their productivity, others are not here.
“The absence of governors from Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Kwara and Niger states who were not only absent but did not send their representatives speaks volume of our lack of readiness as a government to improve agriculture for sufficient food security,” Senator Adamu said.
Senator Adamu advised the Daily Trust not to be discouraged by the kind of attendance as witnessed but to forge ahead in contributing their quarter to nation-building which has gone beyond news reporting into agricultural programmes.
He lauded Daily Trust for organizing the forum as part of her corporate social responsibility to support the Green Alternative (GA) initiative of the Federal Government.
He said the Green Alternative was is aimed at revitalizing the agricultural sector, adding that the federal government was counting on the North-Central zone, given its arable land, to drive the process.
Adamu said, “We cannot be said to be a government where our people are still applying the predatory system of agriculture where our women in the villages are seen returning from farms in the evening with firewood on their head and a child on their back.”